Politics

George Will: ‘Government Is Not Competent’

Al Weaver Reporter
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During a panel discussion about whether government is going too far, specifically as the White House handles multiple scandals and crisis’ such as the recent Ebola outbreak and the string of recent flubs by the Secret Service, syndicated columnist George F. Will said that “government is not competent,” and asked “what isn’t [the government] job these days?”

Will: “Government is not competent. Frankly it’s not competent under Republicans or Democrats because it is always a monopoly and monopolies are not disciplined by market forces that are connected with reality. Teasing this segment, you asked “can we have faith in government?” I think we have much more to fear from excessive faith in government than from too little faith in government. You asked “can we trust the government to do its job?” What isn’t its job these days? I’ve just made a list. It’s fine-tuning the curriculum of our students k-12, monitoring sex on campuses, deciding how much ethanol we should put in our gas tanks, it’s designed our lightbulbs, and it’s worried sick over the name of the Washington football team. Now this is a government that doesn’t know when to stop.”

“The distilled essence of progressivism is that government is benign, disinterested force, that’s false, and that it’s stuffed with expert, really gifted at doing things. Republicans do this also. Democrats do it on domestic policy. Republicans brought us nation building, regime change. A common theme is the excessive faith in the skills of government.”